In one way or another, most of the problems facing Ethiopia today are tied to one simple fact: Many of its people are starving, some to death. Since the 1980's, Ethiopia has been hit by a series of droughts centered in its low- lying regions. Nevertheless famine and starvation are rarely just the result of drought, human policies or governments or liberation fonts are just as responsible for these issues Ethiopia is facing. But for now the main challenge of life in contemporary Ethiopia is finding a means to hold the country together until these ongoing droughts finally come to an end. But when this will happen is difficult for anyone to predict.
Ethiopia is a country with a population of 69 million, going on 70. It is located on the between the borders of Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan with an area of 426,373 miles. This country produces cereals, pulses, coffee, linseed oil seed, sugarcane, potatoes, gat, hides, cattle, sheep and goats. Their main export commodities are coffee, leather products, gold, gat and oil seed. While their major partners they trade with are Italy, Germany and Saudi Arabia, they also work with our country and we are the ones that provide them with the most. They receive imports of food, live animals, petroleum and its products, chemicals, machinery, motor vehicles, and aircraft. .
Even though these Ethiopian partners are provided with such products, Hunger is still troubling much of the population in the Country. Famine is the highest hunger lurking this troubled country followed by chronic hunger. In most years the plateaus receive about forty inches of rain; but many seasons of drought in a row are common. These droughts then bring on the famines that are now one of the facts of life in Ethiopia. Currently approximately twenty percent of people are in need of food aid, and another twenty percent are at the risk of starvation and famine, which is worse than the famine of 1984.
